Rules of Engagement (film)
| runtime = 128 minutes | country = United States | language = English Arabic Vietnamese | budget = $60 million | gross = $71.7 million }} Rules of Engagement is a 2000 American war film directed by William Friedkin, written by Jim Webb and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson plays U.S. Marine Colonel Terry Childers, who is brought to court-martial after men under Childers' orders kill a large number of civilians outside the U.S. embassy in Yemen. Plot In 1968, a disastrous American advance in the Vietnam War has Lieutenant Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) executing an unarmed prisoner in order to intimidate a captive North Vietnamese army officer into calling off an ambush of U.S. Marines. His act thereby saves the life of the wounded Lieutenant Hayes Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones), though many of Hodges' men die in the battle. In 1996, now a colonel, Hodges is about to retire from the Marine Corps and is reminiscing about his years in uniform. As a result of wounds he sustained during Operation Kingfisher, he was no longer able to continue serving as an infantry officer, so the Marine Corps sent him to law school and he continued his career as a JAG officer. He subsequently enters the Camp Lejeune Officers Club, where numerous Marine officers wait to honor his service at a pre-retirement party. Hosting the event is his old friend, Colonel Terry Childers, who is now the commanding officer of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). Subsequently deployed to Southwest Asia as part of an Amphibious Readiness Group, Childers and his embarked MEU are called to evacuate the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen from the embassy grounds as a routine demonstration against American influence on the Arabian peninsula and in the Persian Gulf turns into rock-throwing and sporadic automatic-rifle fire by snipers from nearby rooftops. After escorting Ambassador Mourain (Ben Kingsley) and his family to a waiting helicopter, Childers returns to the embassy to retrieve the American flag; meanwhile three Marines are killed by snipers on nearby rooftops. Childers then orders his men to open fire on the crowd and "waste the motherfuckers", resulting in the deaths of 83 civilian protesters and injuries to over 100 more. Back in the U.S., the U.S. National Security Advisor, Bill Sokal (Bruce Greenwood), pressures the military to proceed with a court-martial to try to deflect negative public opinion about the United States and salvage American relations in the Middle East, placing all the blame for the incident onto Childers. Childers subsequently approaches Hodges and asks him to be his defense attorney at the upcoming court-martial. Hodges is reluctant to accept, knowing that his record as a JAG officer is less than impressive and Childers needs a better lawyer. But Childers is adamant because he wants an attorney who has served in combat. With little time to prepare a defense, Hodges visits Yemen, only to find an uncooperative government and firsthand account of the serious injuries the crowd members endured. Most of the evidence is stacked against Childers, particularly the fact that no one else in his team can testify to having seen gunfire coming from the crowd, in particular Captain Lee (Blair Underwood), who hesitated to follow Childers' order. Sokal is determined for him to be convicted and is met by the overzealous prosecutor, Major Biggs (Guy Pearce), who believes Childers to be absolutely guilty. Sokal at one point burns a videotape of security camera footage revealing that the crowd were indeed armed and firing at the Marines, evidence that would potentially exonerate Childers. He also blackmails Ambassador Mourain into lying on the stand and saying both that the crowd had been peaceful and that Childers had been violent towards him and his family during the evacuation. Colonel Hodges meets with Mourain's wife after the ambassador's testimony to hear her side of the story. Although she admits Childers had been valiant, she refuses to testify and destroy her marriage. During the trial, Hodges presents a shipping manifest proving that a tape from an undamaged camera which had been looking directly into the crowd—the tape Sokal had burned—had been delivered to Sokal's office, but failed to show up at the trial, arguing that this tape would not have been damning evidence against Childers if it had, in fact, shown the crowd was armed. Captain Lee is grilled on the witness stand by Major Biggs and despite trying to give favorable testimony, leaves doubt of Childers' innocence. Childers himself eventually takes the stand and engages in a fierce verbal battle with Biggs. Biggs produces a tape which contains the recording of Childers' poor choice of words when giving his order. While defending his actions, Childers loses his temper while stating that he would not sacrifice the lives of his men to appease the likes of Biggs. Hodges is left at a loss for words, knowing that this could easily doom Childers because they do not have any credible evidence to defend Childers's claims that the crowd was armed and his poor choice of words can be interpreted by the jury as being prejudiced towards Yemenis or having a gung-ho/cowboy attitude. Already at an advantage, the prosecution presents the Vietnamese colonel who witnessed Childers execute a POW in Vietnam, Colonel Cao, as a rebuttal witness, trying to drive home the idea that Childers is malicious. Hodges cross-examines him and gets him to testify that had the circumstances been reversed, Cao would have done the same thing. After the trial, Hodges visits Sokal and asks him what happened to the tape; Sokal denies its existence. Childers is found guilty of the minor charge of breach of the peace (for having disobeyed his order to just show his Marines), but not guilty of the more serious charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and murder. A final title card reveals that no further charges were brought against Childers and that he retired honorably from the Marine Corps. The title card also explains that both Sokal and Mourain lost their jobs after being convicted of destruction of evidence and perjury, respectively. Cast *Tommy Lee Jones as Col Hayes Lawrence "Hodge" Hodges II, USMC *Samuel L. Jackson as Col Terry L. Childers, USMC *Guy Pearce as Maj Mark Biggs, USMC *Ben Kingsley as Ambassador Mourain *Bruce Greenwood as U.S. National Security Advisor Bill Sokal *Anne Archer as Mrs. Mourain *Blair Underwood as Capt Lee, USMC *Philip Baker Hall as Gen Hayes Lawrence Hodges, USMC (Ret) *Dale Dye as MajGen Perry, USMC *Mark Feuerstein as Tom Chandler *Richard McGonagle as court judge, Col E. Warner, USMC *Baoan Coleman as Colonel Binh Le Cao, NVA (Retd) *Nicky Katt as Hayes Lawrence Hodges III *Ryan Hurst as Captain Hustings, USMC *Gordon Clapp as Harris *Amidou as Dr Ahmar *Hayden Tank as Justin *Ahmed Abounouom as Jimi *Tuan Tran as translator *John Speredakos as lawyer *Jihane Kortobi as little girl *David Lewis Hays as bailiff NCO *Peter Tran as Col Cao's radio operator *Bonnie Johnson as Mary Hodges *Jason C. West as Col Childer's radio operator *Attifi Mohamed as Tariq *Zouheir Mohamed as Aziz *Thom Barry as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff *Kevin Cooney as Four-star General *Helen Manning as Sarah Hodges *David Graf as ARG Commander *Conrad Backmann as Secretary of defense *Baouyen C. Bruyere as Col Cao's granddaughter *G. Gordon Liddy as talk-show host Production The script was based on an original screenplay by James Webb, who developed it with Scott Rudin. William Friedkin was hired to direct, but then had trouble collaborating with Webb on rewrites of the script. Rudin passed the project over to Rickard Zanuck, who then hired Stephen Gaghan to work on the screenplay. Webb hated Gaghan's work and frustrated the filmmaker's attempts to get cooperation from the Department of Defense. Eventually this was obtained. Location shooting took place in Morocco, Nokesville, Virginia, Warrenton, Virginia (military base scenes), Hunting Island, South Carolina (Vietnam scenes), Mount Washington, Virginia (Gen. Hodges' estate scenes).Friedkin pp. 430–431 Reception Critical The film received negative reviews upon release, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it 36% with some critics stating "the script is unconvincing and the court room drama dull". The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee described it as "probably the most racist film ever made against Arabs by Hollywood".Whitaker, Brian. "The 'towel-heads' take on Hollywood", The Guardian. Friday August 11, 2000. Director William Friedkin, however, dismissed accusations that the film was racist: Let me state right up front, the film is not anti-Arab, is not anti-Muslim and is certainly not anti-Yemen. In order to make the film in Morocco, the present King of Morocco had to read the script and approve it and sign his name ... and nobody participating from the Arab side of things felt that the film was anti-Arab. The film is anti-terrorist. It takes a strong stand against terrorism and it says that terrorism wears many faces ... but we haven't made this film to slander the government of Yemen. It's a democracy and I don't believe for a moment they support terrorists any more than America does.Films - interview - William Friedkin. BBC. Retrieved on 2014-05-22. Friedkin later claimed the film "was a box office hit but many critics saw it as jingoism".Friedkin p' 433 He says that James Webb later saw the film on the recommendation of his friend Colonel David Hackworth; Webb then rang Friedkin to say how much he liked it.Friedkin p' 434 See also * Trial movies * War crime References *Friedkin, William, The Friedkin Connection, Harper Collins 2013 Further reading * * External links * * * * * **http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/news/newsid_726000/726498.stm Category:2000 films Category:2000s drama films Category:2000s mystery films Category:American films Category:American drama films Category:American legal films Category:American mystery films Category:American political drama films Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by William Friedkin Category:Military courtroom films Category:Films shot in Morocco Category:Films shot in Virginia Category:Films shot in South Carolina Category:Films set in Yemen Category:Paramount Pictures films Category:United States Marine Corps in films Category:Vietnam War films Category:Films produced by Scott Rudin Category:Screenplays by Stephen Gaghan Category:Films produced by Richard D. Zanuck Category:Film scores by Mark Isham